How To Read Literature Like A Professor Themes - LitCharts

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Introduction + Context Plot Summary Detailed Summary & Analysis Preface Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Interlude: Does He Mean That? Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Interlude: One Story Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Postlude Envoi Themes All Themes Surface Reading vs. Deeper Reading Symbol and Metaphor Archetype and Pattern Recognition Intertextuality Literature, Life, and Society Quotes Characters All Characters Jesus Christ William Shakespeare Sigmund Freud James Joyce Toni Morrison Terms All Terms Intertextuality Archetype Canon Conceit Noumenal Symbols All Symbols The One Story The Bible Download PDF Download Teacher Edition Sign In Sign up for A+ AI Tools

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Sign In Sign up for A+ Sign up Introduction Intro Plot Summary Plot Summary & Analysis

• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Interlude: Does He Mean That?
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Interlude: One Story
• Chapter 21
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 23
• Chapter 24
• Chapter 25
• Chapter 26
• Chapter 27
• Postlude
• Envoi

Themes

• All Themes
• Surface Reading vs. Deeper Reading
• Symbol and Metaphor
• Archetype and Pattern Recognition
• Intertextuality
• Literature, Life, and Society

Quotes Characters

• All Characters
• Jesus Christ
• William Shakespeare
• Sigmund Freud
• James Joyce
• Toni Morrison

Terms

• All Terms
• Intertextuality
• Archetype
• Canon
• Conceit
• Noumenal

Symbols

• All Symbols
• The One Story
• The Bible

Theme Wheel Theme Viz Download this Chart (PDF) Download the Teacher Edition Download this Chart (PDF)

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How to Read Literature Like a Professor Themes

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Themes and Colors LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Surface Reading vs. Deeper Reading

Foster explains that he wrote How to Read Literature Like a Professor in order to address a particular problem: the fact that untrained readers tend to read literature in a surface-level way. This kind of reading is akin to the way one “reads” real-life situations, such as taking people at their word when they speak, or assuming there is no symbolic significance to the fact that someone has developed a disease. Foster includes examples of…

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Symbol and Metaphor

Of all the literary devices examined within the book, symbol and metaphor are arguably the most important. Although they have similar meanings, there is an important distinction between them. A symbol is something that, within the context of a literary work, has a different meaning or meanings from its literal or primary one. A metaphor, meanwhile, is a figure of speech in which an idea is conveyed in an indirect, non-literal way. For example, in…

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Archetype and Pattern Recognition

Archetypes are figures which are imprinted on readers’ minds through repetition in myth and other cultural narratives, and which are imitated, modified, and subverted within works of literature. The archetype of the hero, for example, began in ancient myths, and was defined by certain qualities such as strength, courage, and physical beauty. Nowadays, a hero figure may appear in literature who shares some of these qualities but not others, and yet is still recognizable as…

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Intertextuality

Interextuality is a relatively simple concept; it simply refers to the connection between all texts (especially works of literature) across history. Throughout the book, Foster encourages the reader not to think of literary texts as existing in an isolated vacuum, but as having connections to particular cultural and religious traditions (Greek myth, the Bible), genres (vampire stories, fairy tales), and authors (Shakespeare, the Brothers Grimm). By describing these links as intertextual, Foster…

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Literature, Life, and Society

The overall aim of the book is not simply to help high school students pass their English classes or to introduce college students to the world of literary scholarship. Rather, it is clear that the skill of “reading literature like a professor” serves a purpose beyond the confines of the classroom. On one level, literature can help us understand our own minds and lives by a version of the “one story” to which…

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